The Manhattan High boys swim and dive have now completed five meets.  

They have placed first at three of the meets and second at two of those meets. They attended the Shawnee Mission meet on Jan. 25 and the Great Bend Invite Jan. 27. The meet results can be found on meetmobile.com or swimcould.com.

The team has officially reached the middle of their season. This has brought up many feelings throughout the team, some sentimental and others silly. 

“Sometimes I get a little sad over the fact that after every meet it gets a little closer to the end,” senior Ethan Balman said. “Then I remember that I just have to live in the moment and so I try to take it all in because it really is a moment I don’t want to forget.”

Other than just the swimmers, the coaches also have feelings on being halfway through the season. 

“Overall I think that the team has a really good morale but sometimes that can turn into horseplay,” coach Cole McClure said. “But overall a little bit better behavior will lead to a lot better performance.”

Winter break caused a few problems for the guys. Due to being snowed in, many practices were cancelled. Many of the swimmers feel that because they missed out on those practices they are no longer as a team where they want to be in their race times and technique. 

“I think our team is just less conditioned as we were before,” senior Max Steffensmier said. “But I think within the next week or so that it should be evened out and fixed.”

With Regionals and State being in four weeks, many of the guys have taken to completely locking in and putting their best effort in. Senior swimmers have taken notice of younger swimmers and their hard work. 

“Honestly our star swimmer right now would be sophomore Ezra Kohl,” Balman said. “He right now thinks he has the second fastest time on the team and he has only been swimming for two seasons so yeah, he’s doing great.”